e-waste

A couple of weeks ago, a friend tweeted out a question about recycling Tyvek™ envelopes. I responded that she could – if she mailed them to a location that accepted them. She was a little put off: after all, the envelope was marked with a #5 plastic recycling symbol, so shouldn’t she just be able to throw it in her recycling bin?

Tracking e-waste: Where do your old electronics end up? The basement? The trash? Or in a developing country for “recycling?” The UN’s StEP project wants to find out, and the US EPA has provided them with $2.5 million to track US electronic waste. (via @TerracomChicago)

Finnish culture meets green building: Traditional Finnish building involves a lot of wood, and the Luukku House design combines this tradition with solar energy, high-efficiency windows, and other “green” features. The design has won awards from both the Finnish Timber Council and Solar Decathlon Europe. (via Good News from Finland)
Onsite composting for restaurants: GaiaRecycle’s new G-30H provides onsite composting for restaurants and schools… no need to have those food scraps hauled away (or — shudders — throw them in the trash).

It’s Thursday… and that means green tech finds! Here’s what we found this week:

Princeton calls Kindle experiment a success: In our very first green tech finds post, we took note of Princeton’s plans to experiment with the Amazon Kindle to save paper. The pilot worked on that front… though findings showed the device may still may not be ready to fully supplant paper texts.

The beach sand fuel cell rolled out:Bloom Energy received tons of coverage yesterday for its public launch of the “Bloom Box,” a fuel cell system based on “solid oxide ceramic fuel cells.” Developers promise a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions, cheaper electricity, and fuel flexibility with the system.